The Sad Loss of My Birkis

Okay I have so many things I wanna post but I'm gonna try to stagger them so as not to overwhelm you all. :) First off, we are in Blowing Rock for 5 days!! Seriously! I am so excited. A super sweet family is letting us stay in their place up here and I'm loving it. I went to Appalachian for college so anytime I can come back up to the mountains I get excited. We are trying to plan some fun inexpensive things to do with Isabel while we're here. I'll update you all on that tomorrow.

So, a couple weeks ago my very favorite pair of Birkenstock Birkis tore. Last year, the other toe strap tore and I was able to have it replaced and repaired for $7!

So when the other one tore I just knew that they could fix it up too. I carried my sad shoe in and the guy looked at it and said, "Well...the thing is, I'm afraid what would happen if I pull the cork bed out now...it's falling apart." I admitted that I had been wearing them literally every spring, summer, and part of fall for the past 5-6 years. I loved those shoes. They were so comfortable, unique, and soft. He pulled some of the toe strap to the side and said, "well you could just rip this off and then wear them w/out a strap over your toe." I said, "yeah....i could..." I tried it on like that later when I got home and it didn't really work and it looked kinda weird. I came to the realization that it was time to move on and get a new pair of shoes. I looked through my closet and realized that all my flip flops and even my Rainbows had little to no tread left and were pretty sad. So, I headed to the local shoe store that sells Birkis. Well, apparently, the new styles are just not that cute. I mean, if you have a pair, I don't mean they're not "cute" but they're just not "me." :) Anyway, I was disappointed. I started thinking. Isabel and Brian both have a pair of Keens and they love their's so maybe i should try some of those on. Well, here's the thing I don't like my toes to be covered...it feels weird. I also wanted something that would look cute with skirts and dresses but also cute with jeans. So, we headed over to Village Outdoors at Reynolda Village. I had the most helpful salesperson ever. He didn't pester me. He let me look around a while. I finally found a pair of Chaco's that I really liked. He showed me exactly how to fit them and let me try lots of different styles. I decided on a pair that look kinda similar to my good ol Birkis (well, they're blue anyways). I really like them so far but the rubber footbed definitely takes getting used to. The tread is way better on these though and they have great support for high arches (which I have).